I often need to use the "Compare with base" option in TortoiseSVN on more than one file and I can't manage to do it with WinMerge using tabs. If I enable the "Allow only one instance to run" setting I see files opening rapidly in the same window and eventually only the last one remains open. If I disable the setting I get each file in a different Window. Is is possible to use tabs?

WinMerge is configured as diff viewer at install time with the default settings:

kalvaro wrote:I often need to use the "Compare with base" option in TortoiseSVN on more than one file and I can't manage to do it with WinMerge using tabs. If I enable the "Allow only one instance to run" setting I see files opening rapidly in the same window and eventually only the last one remains open. If I disable the setting I get each file in a different Window. Is is possible to use tabs?

This kind of tabs usage is not supported in current WinMerge versions.

This is a good feature request. It needs some planning about how and when we want to do this "open to new tabs". Would it be only done when single instance is enabled? Or should we add couple of options for this. I'd rather not add new options if possible. But then I see different use cases when one wants new tabs and when files should open to the same tab.

If it depended on me, in the long run I'd just get rid of the whole "one instance" concept and handle it as web browsers do: always reuse the last instance that had focus and allow to open new instances via "File-> New window".

In any case, "only one instance" should not be a synonym for "only one document". Opening a new doc should not close the previous one.

Its still only a default setting when user starts WinMerge for a first time. I think this option was added before single-instance or tabs were added so we just forgot to update its default value to more sensible one.

I've now set the default to allow multiple file compare documents by default. The new default setting will be in all future experimental releases and 2.12 stable release.